Last of Spirit Mountain...

Well, the day began with a tournament here at Spirit Mountain Casino, near the Northern Oregon coast. I lasted till the blinds got to 1K & 2K and had 6K left, after paying my big blind. One person limped in and the small blind called and I checked with a J7 unsuited. The flop came J, 10, 8 and the small blind went all in for 4K. I thought he probably had me beat, but I said…”well, I hear you have to get lucky to win one of these things and I threw in my 4K thinking he had a Jack with a better kicker, then the bettor called also behind us. When the hands were exposed, it turns out, the small blind only had a pair of 6’s, but the caller had a J,10 for two pair. I needed a 9 to make a straight, in order to survive. It didn’t come and I was out.

I went back to the RV, played with Pokey, read and took a long afternoon nap. Then after making us dinner, I went in to play for the evening. I played 2-4 N/L from 4-10 p.m. with a very enjoyable table. The two gentlemen to my right, and I told jokes for hours. The whole table was laughing either with us, or at us.

The only part that was frustrating was, there were two horrible players that raised often with nothing. The lost at least a thousand each from their horrible play and very little of it to me. They were such easy money, and I was card dead all evening. I went 3 hours without being able to play a hand. I was willing to play and two cards over tens, and any two suited connectors from 6-10 never once got any cards within that range in that 3 hour period and that is difficult to accomplish.

I only wanted to risk $200 tonight, so I would blind down under $100 before I got any cards to play, and then would double up to $200 and do it again. I think I did it 4 times in 6 hours.

When I got down to $70 I looked for a place to go all in. One of the horrible players, bet $20 in first position and I knew he would not have a very good hand. I only had A,10, but figured everyone else would drop if I went in for my last $70. I did and they did, and he called.

He had a KJ and sure enough a J came on the river and my $200 buy-in was gone. I thanked everyone, and told the two to my right, how much I enjoyed playing with them and joking with them and headed back to the RV to walk Pokey.

Now I am drinking a cup of hot chocolate, thinking about the evening and wondering if there was something else I could have done for a different outcome.

Well, it is still early enough after I am refreshed I may go in for a second round tonight and hopefully get some better cards.

(A little later….)

Well, I did go back and played until 2 A.M. I did catch some cards, and more importantly I caught a couple of players who thought they were a lot better then they were. I was able to have pretty good read on them most of the time and was able to win back most of the money I lost in that wild 10/20 game in La Center.

This will be my last night in Spirit Mountain Casino. I am going to drive down to Eugene Oregon, tomorrow evening to have dinner with an old friend. Bruce Westlund and I were best friends from 10 to age 30 then we lost track of each other for 25 years.

Tomorrow night we will have some catching up to do.